"It's okay, the client signed a waiver"
I review and audit creative work for tons of digital projects each week. Just one of the types of things I look for is anything in the design that's not ADA-compliant. When I point out any ADA issues, nothing makes me cringe more than hearing a team say, "It's okay, the client is okay with this piece not being ADA-compliant. They signed a waiver."
To me, this means a few things:
1. The client doesn't understand why accessibility and ADA compliance are important (even if they think they do!).
They may be somewhat aware of the legal implications of ADA compliance, and for some reason they've decided they're willing to accept the risk. (I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why!) However, they're almost certainly not considering their ethical responsibility to users with disabilities. They're also probably not considering the risk of a PR nightmare if their brand is exposed for not treating consumers who have disabilities with the respect and dignity they deserve. And on top of that, they're probably not aware that materials that follow accessibility guidelines perform better for all users — meaning enhanced engagement and enhanced success across the board. Believe me, what the client wants is for the work to be engaging and successful. If they understood all of this, it would be easy (okay, easier) to convince them.
How is it that we ended up here, with our clients not fully understanding why ADA-compliant work will produce better results for them?
2. We didn't do our job educating them.
We are the digital experts. We have a responsibility to guide our clients toward making good choices about digital, and we have a responsibility to people with disabilities to make all of our work accessible. "Client is stubborn" is not an excuse. "This is a rush job" is not an excuse. "Budget is tight" is not an excuse.
Well, in any case, we have the signed waiver. So what's the problem?
3. We are opening up our client, and ourselves, to tremendous risk.
Yes, ourselves too! Even with a signed waiver! Think about this: if our client gets sued for an ADA violation, do you think they'll blame themselves for the choice they made? Or will they blame our agency for not making more of an effort to educate and protect them? We avoid a lawsuit, but we have a very unhappy client, and we (very possibly) lose the business. The client might tell their boss, "This was my fault," but the boss is still likely to say, "We're not working with that agency again." This should be unacceptable to us. Don't we owe it to our clients to protect them? See number 2 above; we must guide them.
How would we feel as agency if we were exposed for making work that's not accessible for people with disabilities? Even though we had a signed waiver? This brings me to my last point about why I cringe when I hear a team say, "It's okay, the client signed a waiver."
4. We've agreed to work in a way that is not ethical and does not meet our responsibility to people with disabilities.
This may sound extreme, but if it were up to me, we would refuse to produce any work that's not accessible to everyone. The idea of an ADA waiver shouldn't exist in our world. Our ethical responsibility should be our top priority. Agencies should proudly state that accessibility is a commitment they've made to the community. Many companies have! We want to be one of those companies. Right?
As always, communication with our clients is key; they are our valued customers and their success is our success. Let's talk to them!
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.